National anglers pursue bass fishing's elusive double crown

PITTSBURGH – Jay Yelas of Corvallis, Ore., Mike Iaconelli of Runnemede, N.J., and Takahiro Omori of Emory, Texas, are nationally known anglers who have a chance this weekend to join five others who have won the Bassmaster Classic and the FLW Outdoors Forrest Wood Cup.

Should one of them do it, they'll earn their spot among dual champions Dion Hibdon, Luke Clausen, George Cochran, Davy Hite and David Fritts

“That would be pretty cool,” Yelas said. “But this is one tough fishery, the toughest I've ever fished, and I've fished all over the nation.”

Yelas blanked both days here during the 2005 Bassmaster Classic, failing to weigh in a legal bass.

“I feel like I have a much better approach this time,” Yelas said. “I learned a lot even though I didn't do well in that tournament. I learned a lot about these rivers.”

Like many anglers, Yelas is going as far up the Allegheny River as he can.

“I'm going up three pools on the Allegheny,” he said. “It clean up in that area. There's not as much sewage and trash as there is in the Downtown area. And it's really quite picturesque once you get up there. It's clean, flowing water up that far.”

Yelas thinks all the practice this week will make for even tougher fishing than the anglers had at the Classic four years ago. Kevin Van Dam won the Pittsburgh Classic with a three-day total of 12 pounds, 15 ounces, the lowest ever for a Classic. His last-day bag weighed 4 pounds, 13 ounces. He edged Aaron Martens by six ounces.

“I really think you're going to see a repeat of that Classic,” Yelas said. “The one thing different this week has been the four days of practice. At the Classic, we just had a half day to practice that week. These guys were out there fishing hard for four days. They were sticking fish, and that will affect the catch. As the tournament progresses, it will get worse because these guys were out there catching everything that bit in the last four days. That has to take a toll.”

Iaconelli, who grew up fishing the Delaware River on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border and the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, fished the Bassmaster Classic here in 2005. He's fresh from a gut-wrenching second-place finish in the Bassmaster Classic in February in Shreveport, La.

“It has changed here since we were here four years ago,” Iaconelli said. “I think the biggest difference is they have a lot more water, which is really going to help. It's a lot better environment than what it was. We were coming off a big flood and then the drought. Now we have a more stable environment. I think it's a more stable system than it was before.”

Iaconelli failed to catch a limit of bass on all three days of the Bassmaster Classic in '05, but he wasn't alone. He finished fifth that year.

“Right now I've got it broken down to three different pools in two rivers,” Iaconelli said. “When I prefished, it was more looking to see what I needed to know.”

Iaconelli qualified out of the Stren series for the FLW Forrest Wood Cup and also fished a full schedule on the Bassmaster Elite series.

“Can't ever feel different about a championship,” he said. “All championships are special and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win. That never changes whether it's BASS or FLW. The ability to win that trophy is something so few people have ever done.”

Iaconelli has fished the BASS circuit without a co-angler, something BASS did to turn its Elite Series into a truly exclusive club. The FLW Championship allows co-anglers to fish with pros for three days.

“As tough as it is out there, it makes it that much tougher fishing with a partner,” Iaconelli said. “I think co-anglers are important. But it's tough because when that fish is taken away, that's one less fish in that spot. And on a fishery as tough as this, it makes a difference.”

Iaconelli said that since the rivers are flowing better, are clearer and have stayed cooler, there should be more limits of bass and bigger weights than at the Classic four years ago. Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., agreed with Iaconelli and said the bag sizes should be heavier this time around on the Three Rivers.

“It's cooler than it was at the Classic four years ago, but the water has warmed up four degrees in the last few weeks,” Iaconelli said. “The weights are going to be higher, definitely be higher than they were at the Classic. I see limits in the 5-to 6-pound range.”

There's another factor that will come into play. FLW anglers are allowed to use nets to land their fish. BASS prohibits nets.

“I can tell you that in that Classic that Kevin Van Dam won here, five or six guys in the top 10 had the winning fish on,” Iaconelli said. “River smallmouth are really feisty, especially when they're in the 12-to 14-inch range. They're just wirey and tough to get into the boat.”

Iaconelli said he will help his co-angler and net a fish, just as the co-angler will help him when a fish needs netted.